When a football team comes off two straight losing seasons, including a franchise-worst 3-14, one would think that a complete roster overhaul would be in order.
Except for the New York Giants, who have come up way short in their attempt to improve upon their surprising 9-7-1 record in 2022, the first year of the Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen era, they have taken the opposite approach.
In a new analysis by Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap, the Giants lead the league in the top of the roster return rate at 90.3%, a figure that represents the percentage of top players returning from a year ago.
In the study, Fitzgerald did not include quarterback Daniel Jones in the analysis because he only considered every player under contract to the team as of the final regular season game of 2024 (excluding the practice squad) and their status for 2026.
The 90.3% rate is rather astonishing because the Giants' starting offense, which was perhaps the biggest problem on the team, underwent barely any changes other than at the quarterback position.
The high percentage of return underscores the team’s belief that the quarterback play was a big factor in the franchise’s struggles last season, which is why it’s been projected that by Week 1 of the upcoming season, the Giants are likely to have three new faces in the room–Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston, and rookie Jaxson Dart–replacing last year’s trio of Jones, Drew Lock, and Tommy DeVito.
In terms of overall rate of return, the Giants ranked ninth with a 76.8% return rate. This figure, however, takes into consideration the entire roster.
What’s interesting about this breakdown is the difference between the offense (86.2%) and the defense (67.6%), which aligns with the heavy emphasis general manager Joe Schoen placed on reworking the defensive unit’s depth.
The defense was just as much of a problem during last year’s disappointing season. Unlike the offense, one of the biggest problems with the defense was not having enough depth or the proper personnel skill sets to do what defensive coordinator Shane Bowen was looking to achieve.
With all that said, it will be interesting to see if Schoen’s approach to restructuring the roster finally yields the kind of return that is expected starting this season.
